General Practical Guide to 3GPP: Embracing the community of industry verticals
The benefits of 5G networks for a growing number of vertical industries calls for involement in global standardisation work. This extended 5G community beyond telecom operators, manufacturers, SMEs and research institutes is a key opportunity for 3GPP to embrace newcomers from industry verticals and work together to optimally capture end-user requirements and support contributions to the 3GPP standardisation process.
Efforts to bring on board industry verticals started several years ago with the first inklings of interest around 4G. To lower barriers for industry verticals, in 2019 a sub-set of 3GPP Market Representation Partners joined forces with high-level 3GPP specialist, guiding verticals through the member-driven 3GPP standardisation processes.These MRPs are: 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), 5G Alliance for Connected Industry and Automation (5G-ACIA), Public Safety Communication Europe (PSCE) and the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G-IA) of the 5G PPP. New support services are also coming from within 3GPP as it continues to expand its scope as part of global developments to deliver a platform that verticals can use to run new services.
This first practical guide is based on the early experiences from a series of 5G vertical user workshops led by the sub-set of 3GPP MRPs and discussions during 3GPP plenaries.
Practical Guide for Industry Verticals
- Understand that the overall 3GPP ecosystem is critical.
- Be aware that 3GPP has its own language and ecosystem.Get help in understanding what has already been done, whether through an industry vertical association or desk research.
- Participate in all levels of 3GPP to achieve success – not just one group. Be aware that as work moves across various stages and working groups, terminology will evolve and complexity increase.
- You cannot go it alone. Build relationships with others and help them when they need it, including other industry verticals.
- Understand that success takes time. For example, it took The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) at least 5 years of effort to get practical standards. Work on satellite (non-terrestrial networks) is also taking a stepwise approach across the different working groups and stages, recognising the importance of involving the entire ecosystem.
- Work together as verticals, consolidating and prioritising requirements when possible and mapping common requirements across verticals to pinpoint areas of mutual interest and support.
- Acknowledge that there is more work to be done for market adoption outside the scope of 3GPP: spectrum, policy, go-to-market, product development.
- Leverage the guidance of the Task Force formed by the sub-set of MRPs and its evolving support and tools.
Practical Guide for Operators and Vendors
- Embrace verticals as an important addition to the 3GPP community.
- Spend time getting to know newcomers and help verticals navigate their way through the 3GPP processes.
- Work with verticals in understanding their business cases, general needs as newcomers, requirements and priorities.
- Support verticals in leveraging your competences, long-standing experiences and resources in carrying out significant technical work, also on behalf of the verticals.
- Co-host webinars tracking work areas of mutual interest and progress on new verticals within the 3GPP ecosystem, e.g. led by SA and RAN chairs with support from the Task Force set up by the .
Joining Forces
Other MRPs and industry vertical associations are welcome to become part of the efforts to help vertical sector specialists join forces with the vast experience of traditional 3GPP members.
